PENNIES FOR CHARITY

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES

TELEMARKETING BYPROFESSIONAL FUND RAISERS

NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF LAW
CHARITIES BUREAU

Eliot Spitzer
ATTORNEY GENERAL

December 2000

HOW THIS REPORT WAS PREPARED/p>

The Charities Bureau of New York State Attorney General has prepared this report to assist members of the public in determining how much of their contributions, solicited by telemarketers, actually supports charitable programs. It may also be used by contributors to decide which charities they wish to support. Charitable organizations may also consult this report to evaluate the performance of professional fund raisers prior to, during or after engaging their services.

The data in this report were obtained from interim and closing statements filed with The Attorney General by Professional Fund Raisers for telemarketing campaigns conducted on behalf of charitable organizations during 1999.1 All of the charities listed in the report conducted telemarketing fundraising campaigns in New York State. The figures reported reflect the total amount of money solicited and are not limited to New Yorkers' contributions.

The report consists of five tables. Table 1 lists the names of the charitable organizations in alphabetical order, the Professional Fund Raisers that conducted each organization's telemarketing campaign, the geographical location of each soliciting charity, the total amount raised in each campaign, the amount each charity received, the amount of uncollected pledges and the percentage of the total amount raised that each charity received from the campaign.

Table 2 contains the same information as Table 1, with the Professional Fund Raisers listed first, in alphabetical order. Table 3 and Table 4 contain the same information as Tables 1 and 2, arranged in descending order by the percentage of the total amount raised that was actually received by the charitable organization with the charitable organization's name presented first in Table 3 and the professional fund raiser's name appearing first in Table 4. Table 5 contains the same information as presented in the other Tables, arranged according to geographical location of the charitable organizations.2

Following each table is a supplemental table that contains information for those 1998 telemarketing campaigns whose financial statements were received after the printing of last year's Pennies for Charity. Figures reported in the supplemental tables are not included in any of the statistical analyses presented in graphic form.

A total of $194.1 million was raised as a result of the 581 telemarketing campaigns included in this report. The $194.1 million includes funds raised in New York and other states during 1999 telemarketing campaigns of charitable organizations registered to solicit contributions in New York. Pledges that have not yet been paid to a charity are not reported as part of the total amount raised but are reported in a separate column in each table. In addition, contributions other than money are not reported in the receipts' column. Of the $194.1 million raised, $55.3 million, or 28. 5 percent, went to the charitable organizations. The remainder was retained by the fund raisers for fees and\or used to cover the costs of conducting the campaigns. The percentage of funds that went to charity for the 581 telemarketing campaigns conducted during 1999 is broken down as follows:

Percent to Charity

Number of Campaigns

Percent of Campaigns

Gross Amount Raised

Percent of Total Funds Raised

Net Amount Received

Percent of Total Net Amount

90-100%

4

.7%

$312,100.38

0.16%

$379,612.63

0.69%

80-89%

5

.9%

$2,400,533.35

1.24%

$2,100,676.21

3.79%

70-79%

18

3.1%

$9,950,941.96

5.13%

$7,313,900.55

13.21%

60-69%

36

6.2%

$10,398,100.71

5.36%

$6,667,594.68

12.04%

50-59%

52

9.0%

$11,224,850.50

5.78%

$6,252,441.65

11.29%

40-49%

51

8.8%

$17,677,342.20

9.11%

$7,920,246.40

14.30%

30-39%

121

20.7%

$20,672,084.70

10.65%

$6,806,447.46

12.29%

20-29%

147

25.3%

$25,819,492.92

13.30%

$6,498,461.93

11.74%

10-19%

100

17.2%

$76,544,505.92

39.44%

$10,940,305.75

19.76%

Below 0-9%

47

8.1%

$19,100,608.81

9.84%

$492,039.27

0.89%

TOTAL

581

100.00%

$194,100,561.45

100.00%

$55,371,726.53

100.00%

In reviewing the data in this report, the reader should keep in mind several factors that may affect fundraising costs. Identifying new donors may be more time consuming and thus more expensive than contacting previous contributors. An organization may conduct a telemarketing campaign simply to test-market new fundraising ideas without any certainty that its campaign will prove efficient and productive. An organization may also achieve goals other than raising funds - such as public education or recruitment of volunteers - at the same time that it is conducing a fundraising campaign. Those other benefits will not be reflected in the revenue received by the charity. A newly created charity or one advocating new programs or new ideas may experience greater fundraising costs without any certainty that its campaign will prove cost effective.

The reader should also keep in mind that amounts raised in a particular telemarketing campaign may represent only a small part of a charity's fundraising activity and, therefore, will not provide donors with an accurate picture of a charity's overall fundraising. Donors are urged to review the entire annual financial report of a charity when considering making a contribution and should not rely solely on this report when making such decisions.

For any particular registered charity, the annual report may be obtained from the organization or by contacting the Charities Bureau.3 In addition, Attorney General's web site - www.ag.ny.gov/charities/charities.html/ - contains links to other sites from which you may access such reports. Potential contributors should review those reports and information received directly from charitable organizations before making a decision as to where to donate their hard-earned dollars.

Pennies for Charity is also posted on Attorney General's web site.

GEOGRAPHIC AREA CODE

Based upon the address contained in documents filed with the Charities Bureau, each charitable organization listed in this report has been assigned to a particular geographic area. Following is a list of those geographic areas, the counties included in each, total gross dollars raised in the specified geographic area and the net amount received by charitable organizations located in the assigned geographic region:

1 Information for six telemarketing campaigns conducted during 1999 was not available on the date of publication of this report.

2 The areas included in each of the eight geographical areas are described below the graph showing the geographical distribution of the charitable organizations listed in this report.

3 A copy of the 1999 financial report of a registered charity may be obtained by calling the Charities Bureau at (212) 416-8401 or writing to Attorney General of the State of New York, Attention Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, New York 10271.